Speedy Print Milwaukee Gets Moving with DesignMerge!

Speedy Print is a commercial digital printer located in Milwaukee, serving the southeast Wisconsin business market since 1972. Their customers include legal professionals, insurance companies, civic organizations, non-profits and general business. Speedy Print offers full design and marketing services as part of an increased interest from their customers who are looking to outsource design and variable data printing. Print quality and customer service is at the heart of their business.

Following is a short interview with Keith Ernst, President, and Amy Messick, Graphics Manager, at Speedy Print Milwaukee discussing how DesignMerge has helped meet their unique challenges with a solution that has resulted in increased profits and expanding business opportunities.

What business challenges have you faced in the VDP market? Our biggest challenge has been educating customers on the benefits of using Variable Data Printing (VDP). Our customers need up-front information on what VDP is, how it works, and what the results might be. In these economic times it can be hard to convince customers of the direct economic benefit that VDP offers them. Once we have been successful in promoting VDP, an additional challenge has been getting our customers to give us properly formatted files.

	Why did you choose DesignMerge for your VDP implementation? Our graphic design and variable printing business has increased steadily year after year. The DesignMerge variable data software has enabled us to stay ahead of our competition by offering cutting-edge technology and services. We initially purchased DesignMerge for two particular clients. One is an insurance company that wanted to personalize ID cards for their customers. With DesignMerge, the ease of printing is amazing, and we have printed over 5000 cards without error. The second company is an internet company wanting internet access codes that feature barcodes, where the barcode changes with each access code. Last year we printed over 100,000 of them, again without a single error. As a result of our positive experience with the above-mentioned customers, we have developed additional relationships with other clients using VDP solutions. It really has become an essential component of the services we provide to our clients.
	What were the results of your DesignMerge implementation? DesignMerge has helped us gain an additional 15-20% in new business, while enabling us to increase the number of jobs that we receive from our established customers, as well. The positive trend in personalized marketing will continue to help Speedy Print to grow. In 2010 we expect an excellent return on our DesignMerge investment resulting in continued expansion of our business!

See Us at Graph Expo

Meadows will be demonstrating the very latest version of DesignMerge Pro for Adobe InDesign in booth 113 at the
Graph Expo show, October 3-6 at McCormick Place in Chicago. The demonstration will include a preview of the new DesignMerge Image module, which is an integration feature that allows DesignMerge to work seamlessly with a number of Variable Image packages. Please stop by for a personalized demonstration. Please contact your DesignMerge sales representative for a complimentary pass to the Graph Expo show!

DesignMerge Technical Support FAQ

What can you tell me about the "Quick Setup" button in the Database Definitions Window?

A “Database Definition” (or DDF) describes the layout of a database file, letting DesignMerge know such things as how many fields are in the database file and whether the database file is tab-delimited or comma-separated. To determine the appropriate settings for a new DDF, DesignMerge provides a “Quick Setup” feature, which is available on the “Database Definitions"”dialog, as described in the first tutorial in the DesignMerge Tutorial Manual.

Generally, Quick Setup will only be used once on a DDF, unless you wish to reset all of the DDF's settings, including its list of Variable Links. Otherwise, to make changes in a DDF, you can simply click the “Edit” button on the "Database Definitions" dialog, and then change the one or two settings that you wish to change.

Use Quick Setup on an existing DDF only when you wish to reset the DDF's settings to default selections. This includes resetting the DDF's list of Variable Links. Quick Setup always builds a new list of Variable Links, removing all of the DDF's previous Variable Links, including any you added by using the “New” or “Save As” button on the “Variable Links” dialog.

If the new list of Variable Links does not include a Variable Link that you have assigned to content in a document, that document will encounter a “Bad Tag!” error when you start a merge session. The names of the Variable Links that are assigned to content in a document must match the names of the Variable Links that are available in a DDF. If you should encounter a "Bad Tag error when merging a document, you may resolve this error either by replacing the erroneous DesignMerge Link in the document or by adding the missing Variable Link to the DDF.

Current DesignMerge Software Versions

Are you running the most current version of the DesignMerge software? Check the table below. For information on upgrades, please contact our sales department at sales@meadowsps.com

MACINTOSH:

WINDOWS:

DesignMerge® Pro Bundle Software

Professional Variable Data Printing Software for QuarkXPress® and Adobe® InDesign®

www.designmerge.com